Thursday 7th August 2025
Blog Page 412

Oxford records its wettest October in 145 years

Matthew Schaffel
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Oxford records its wettest October in 145 years

Oxford recorded its wettest October in 145 years last month, according to data collected at the Radcliffe Observatory. 185.3mm of rain was recorded, making October the wettest month since 1875, and the fourth wettest month on record since 1767.

Data on Oxford’s rain is collected by a rain gauge next to the observatory in the gardens of Green Templeton College. The gauge is read by eye every morning and is the longest, continuous, single-site precipitation data-set in the UK.

Currently, Keble College doctoral student David Crowhurst is responsible for taking readings from the gauge. In a comment to the BBC he said: “We had an intense start to the month which was driven by Storm Alex, which saw 60mm falling on one day, the 3rd. That was quite something…but we also had 27 rainy days in the month. A rainy day is when rainfall is equal to or greater than 0.2mm per day, and those 27 rainy days are a record for an October.”

With the measurements for rain so high, the levels of sunshine recorded in Oxford were well below average. Last month the Radcliffe station recorded only 70.7 hours of sunshine, which is over 30 hours below the monthly average for this time of year.  

Food habits must change to meet Paris Climate Agreement, Oxford-led study finds

Yihang Fang
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Food habits must change to meet Paris Climate Agreement, Oxford-led study finds

According to an Oxford-led study published in the journal Science, even if the world significantly reduces its reliance on fossil fuels, it will still be unable to meet the Paris Climate Agreement goals if the global food system is not transformed as well.

What we eat, how much we eat, how much is wasted, and how food is produced need to change drastically by 2050, if we want to limit the increase in global temperatures to 1.5°C or 2°C above pre-industrial levels. 

“The good news is, there are many achievable ways rapidly to reduce food emissions if they are acted on quickly. These include both raising crop yields and reducing food loss and waste, but the most important is for individuals to shift towards predominantly plant-based diets,” said Dr Michael Clark of The Oxford Martin School and Nuffield Department of Population Health, who is the lead author on the paper.

Reducing the carbon emissions and biodiversity impact of the University’s food system is one of the nine priority areas of the University’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy. The Strategy has the ultimate goal of achieving net zero carbon by 2035 and addressing the global challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. 

The Oxford Student Union, which has played a key role in shaping this Strategy, is also part of the Sustainability Working Group of the Conference of Colleges. They call on colleges to ensure that their practices are as sustainable as possible, while supporting Environment and Ethics reps in pushing for sustainability in food systems in their colleges through ongoing training and the sharing of best practices.

Some colleges have been taking the lead in offering plant-based food options. Based on votes from over 250 students, staff and faculty within the University, Mansfield College was voted the best college for vegetarian and vegan food. As a result, it ranked first in the 2019 Veggie Norrington Table, published by the Oxford University Animal Ethics Society. Notably, Mansfield had also come out on top in the 2016 ranking. 

According to the Bursar of Mansfield College, whose remarks are published on the Veggie Norrington Table website, “The head chef is fully trained in vegetarian cooking, having been on several specialist courses. All other chefs have then been trained to prepare vegetarian meals using the experience of the head chef.”

Students can also get involved directly in tackling the climate crisis. As part of Oxford SU’s Planet Pledge 2020, students can pledge to do one thing that contributes towards sustainable living. Ben Farmer, VP Charities and Community of Oxford SU, said: “Plant-based diets form just one part of sustainable living, and as part of Planet Pledge, students have got a fun chance to have a go at making a sustainable change that they feel comfortable with.”

Students can find more information and sign up for the Oxford SU Planet Pledge here. Staff and students can visit this website to provide feedback on the University’s draft Environmental Sustainability Strategy.

Oxford students raise over £40,000 for Movember

Amelia Wood
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Oxford students raise over £40,000 for Movember

Over 400 students at Oxford University have so far donated over £40,000 to the Movember campaign for men’s health. The total means that Oxford is currently the 5th highest fundraising university for the campaign and 15th overall in the UK for fundraising networks. 

Fourteen colleges have raised over £1000 and six have raised over £2,000. Lincoln College is head and shoulders above their competition having raised nearly £6000, Balliol and Brasenose are a distant second and third with £3,900 and £2,500 respectively. Then follow Wadham College and St Hilda’s with totals around the £2500 mark. The highest ranking non-college organisation is the Oxford University Rugby Football Club (OURFC) who have raised just over £2000.

Balliol’s Movember Campaign, Balliol does Movember, have created the instagram account @balliolbeards to coordinate their campaign. Fundraising milestones have been set up to motivate donors and document their mustache growth. At the £2000 milestone, which has now been surpassed, one college member promised to wax his legs. At £2,500, another said he would get frosted tips. Followers of the account have also been invited to vote for their favourite historical bearded figures, pitting Karl Marx against the Monopoly man. 

Movember is a charity initiative that takes place annually in November. Its focus is on raising money and awareness for men’s health issues from testicular cancer to suicide. People are encouraged to grow their facial hair, do challenges, or do exercise for the duration of the month in order to raise awareness and donations. 

Men’s mental health has be the subject of increasing attention in recent years. Although suicide and injury or poisoning of undetermined intent was the leading cause of death for both men and women in the UK aged between 20 and 34 last year, males had over three times the number of deaths compared to women in that age group, according to the Office for National Statistics. Prince William has championed men’s mental health causes for the past five years through campaigns such as Heads Together, aimed at challenging the stigma surrounding mental health. 

Oscar Lemmens, one of two Oxford University Movember ambassadors, is the highest individual donor at the university, having raised over £1200. He told Cherwell: “Movember this year has gone incredibly well so far! Oxford has almost 400 students participating and has raised over £25k in just a week. This is the best start to Movember that Oxford has ever had. It’s been more difficult to spread awareness because all the moustaches are in lockdown. So we’ve had to get much more creative when it comes to fundraising – buzzcuts, armpit waxing, eyebrow shaving, you name it!

“Anyone can get involved, regardless of gender or facial hair growth! We’ve seen people participate in any way they can, whether that’s getting a mullet or drawing on a moustache! At the end of the day, it’s meant to be a fun way of tackling serious issues by fundraising and spreading awareness!”

Jacob Marchbank, the other ambassador, stated: “I first got involved with Movember in 2018 when my friends organised a quiz in my college bar and I thought it was a fantastic excuse to slack off work.  After which, I successfully applied to become a Movember representative for the university. 

“Personally, I believe Movember occupies a unique and important space as not only a fundraiser for men’s health but also a vector to raise awareness and provide exposure for testicular cancer, prostate cancer and men’s mental health.”

You can donate to the university’s Movember campaign here.

Image credit: Movember Foundation / Wikimedia Commons

Boa Constrictor snakeskin found in Oxford

Daisy Aitchison
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Boa Constrictor snakeskin found in Oxford

A boa constrictor may be on the loose in Oxford after a snakeskin measuring over a metre and a half in length was found next to the Eastern bypass. 

The discovery was made by seven-year-old Amelia Drewett and her grandfather Alan while they were out walking. A subsequent Facebook appeal by Alan’s wife Debra has failed to identify the owner of the animal. 

She said: “I couldn’t believe my eyes when they brought it home. They thought it was just plastic in the brambles under the bridge, but they took a closer look and it was this huge snakeskin.  Nobody’s come up with a reasonable explanation for how it got there”.  

The family subsequently contacted the RSPCA and Evolution Reptiles in Kidlington, who confirmed that the skin was from a boa constrictor. Nicole Head, who works at the shop, believes the snake was deliberately abandoned.  

She said: “I can imagine someone’s let it go, as a large snake it’s pretty hard to lose. If it’s scared it’s going to be worried, but we can’t imagine it’ll cause harm”. 

As boa constrictors are non-venomous they do not require a dangerous wild animal permit, making it more difficult to identify the owner. 

This is not the first time such an incident has occurred. In 2011 another boa constrictor was found in Magdalen Woods after being abandoned. It failed to respond to treatment and later had to be put to sleep. 

Boa constrictors generally grow to between two and three metres long. They famously kill their prey by squeezing them in order to cut off their blood supply and usually eat small mammals such as rats and mice. Given that their natural habitat is Central and Southern America, experts are warning that the snake has a low likelihood of survival unless found soon.

Oxford residents took to social media to outline their own theories on the discovery. Some suggested that the skin might have been discarded as a practical joke, while others thought the idea of a loose snake might encourage greater compliance with lockdown measures.  

The snakeskin is now on display in Alan and Debra’s house about 100 metres from where it was discovered.  

Colin Stevenson, head of education at Crocodiles of the World in West Oxfordshire reiterated that the snake posed a limited threat to the community. He said: “It’s not going to eat your cat. You wouldn’t want it to bite you, but it would only give you a nasty wound”.

Image Credit: Debra Drewett.

Extinction Rebellion accuses HSBC of “climate colonialism” in spoof advertisements

Naman Gupta
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Extinction Rebellion accuses HSBC of “climate colonialism” in spoof advertisements

Extinction Rebellion have put up billboards in bus stops, spoofing HSBC ads, alleging the bank is conducting “climate colonialism”.

The organisation accuses HSBC of “bankrolling significant human rights abuses through their fossil fuel investments”. The group says that this is part of a UK-wide week of action, with activists in over 10 UK cities taking similar actions (including Sheffield, Leeds, Birmingham and Glasgow).

One spoof ad says, with an HSBC logo on fire behind: “We are climate crisis. Drilling oil, fracking gas, mining coal. We’re still funding the lot.”

The activists claim HSBC is investing in a Liquid National Gas project in Mozambique. At the 2020 HSBC AGM, local NGO, “JA!/ Friends of the Earth Mozambique” told the board, “The development of HSBC-funded LNG gas project has caused mass human rights violations in Mozambique, forced removals of hundreds of families from their homes, and the loss of livelihood for farmers and fishermen who have been deprived of their land and access to the sea.”

In October, HSBC announced an “ambitious plan to prioritise financing and investment that supports the transition to a net zero global economy”, pledging to cut to net zero financed emissions from their portfolio of customers by 2050 at the latest.

Group Chief Executive Noel Quinn said, “Our net zero ambition represents a material step up in our support for customers as we collectively work towards building a thriving low-carbon economy.”

April Jones, from Extinction Rebellion Oxford, said, “It’s important that people understand that HSBC may call itself the world’s local bank, but its actions are actually endangering the world, especially people in some of the poorest parts of it.”  

The group worked alongside “Brandalism” activists. Tona Merriman from Brandalism, said: “HSBC likes to position itself as a friendly high street bank through its marketing, but these artworks tell a much darker tale of human rights abuse facilitated by the bank’s activities.”

Extinction Rebellion is an environmental campaign group, which calls itself a “non-violent civil disobedience activist movement”.

In January this year, Extinction Rebellion activists protested outside Oxford’s Examination Schools against the Oxford Farming Conference. 

Cherwell have contacted HSBC’s Oxford branch for comment.

In Conversation with Grace Beverley

Sasha Mills
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In Conversation with Grace Beverley

Grace Beverley is possibly one of the busiest people I’ve ever met. The day of our interview, she posted a photo of the day’s schedule, and I was wedged in amongst almost non-stop meetings. It’s not hard to see why her schedule is so packed. Currently, she holds the CEO and Founder role of two companies: TALA, a sustainable fitness-wear brand, and Shreddy, a fitness app and equipment brand. This means that her main day-to-day job is making executive, top-level decisions. 

“It’s quite a traditional CEO role while having the untraditional, unorthodox version of being CEO of two companies.” She sees her main role, however, as being an entrepreneur; “That is what I spend 90% of my time doing.” Both companies have seen enormous success, and a report in Forbes earlier this year suggested that TALA has already generated a turnover of over £5.2 million (and counting). Only a year after graduating, she’d already made it onto the Forbes 30 under 30 list for Retail and Ecommerce. 

Given that she started her two businesses while still studying for her degree at Oxford, she’s clearly no stranger to time-management, which features heavily in her new book, scheduled to come out next year: “The book is aiming to provide a productivity blueprint for the next generation.” 

Still, it aims to go beyond just self-help. Burnout has become a debated topic of conversation over the last few years, and last year, Anne Petersen’s essay for Buzzfeed, “How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation” went viral. In it, Petersen describes the experience of internalizing “the idea that I should be working all the time,” an experience that she categorises as a distinctly generational one. 

While Beverley falls just on the edge of being a Millenial, her new book takes on some of the ideas that Petersen mentions in her essay. “The book was inspired by two different ideas of our generation as both the snowflake generation and the burn-out generation. So from one side we’re seen as, we like to cut corners, we don’t want to be in a corporation for 40 years before we live the life that we desire. But then on the other side, we’re this burn-out generation because we monetise everything we do, and every free hour is kind of a side hustle; we’re always working.”

“How we can be seen as two different things, and how we can identify with two different things at the same time when the idea of success is not necessarily changing that much with the times, even if we think it is, and it’s leaving us feeling lost.” Throughout her new book, Beverley wants to tackle these contradictions.

If anyone’s qualified to talk about this, I think Grace Beverley might be. Writing a book alongside holding a CEO role in two fairly new companies is certainly no easy feat. When I asked her how she managed it, she gave me quite a simple answer: “I plan to the minute, is life at the moment.” “I find that planning is one of the biggest benefits of even just stress relieving, and being able to even see yourself being able to complete what you want to complete.”

She also credits the support of her teams, who appear like a close-knit family in the occasional Instagram posts they feature in. Scaling up has been essential to managing the load, and while the businesses’ teams are still small, they’re growing at a fast rate. 

Although her achievements so far are monumental, that doesn’t mean that Beverley hasn’t struggled with self-doubt. “I think that one of the most important things is knocking down your own self-doubt first and working out if that’s bleeding through into what you think other people’s perceptions of you are.”

“What I realised after a while […] was that actually the most overarching kind of challenge, and obstacle for that [being taken seriously] was actually with myself. And I was very much creating this feeling for myself because I was so preoccupied with that.” 

“I find that the best way to combat these things is just to do. You can doubt yourself, or think that people think something of you all you want, or you can just get on with the work, and kind of let the success of it speak for itself.” 

One focus that has been key to Beverley has been hiring women, and creating safe spaces for them to develop professionally. She highlighted funding as a key issue for women in entrepreneurship: a study by Beauhurst suggested that in 2018, only 16% of equity deals went to female-founded companies, and the Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship noted that only 13% of senior people in investment teams are women. Despite this, she also thinks that entrepreneurship creates opportunities for women in business that traditional roles may not, such as the ability to forge your own path.  

In spite of the difficulties that face many female founders, Beverley remains insistently positive. I was curious to learn more about the challenges that having a significant online presence alongside her businesses may have posed, but for Beverley, this is a source of opportunity more than anything else. 

“I think if I were to say it’s made my current job harder, I would be very much looking at the negatives, considering I’ve also been able to lead on a huge amount of pre-existing audience spaces with potential customers.” She also pointed out that despite the challenges of being a female founder, “I’m also an Oxford-educated white woman, so I’m going to have huge privileges elsewhere.”

While her businesses may have sprung from her previous status as an influencer, Beverley has taken a notable step back from her social channels and Youtube over the last year, moving to the occasional Instagram post, with a heavier focus on entrepreneurship than previously.

“I realised that actually I didn’t have any place in my life that I wanted to be highly publicised. And I kind of just wanted to focus on growing the companies, and that being my job, and that is my job.”

“I think what’s interesting is that in any other job you’d be able to change your job, and there’s very little ‘oh, you owe it to this to stay,’ whereas with social media that can be slightly imposed based on how much people supported you.” 

To Beverley, stepping back from social media is nothing more than a career change. “We are not even necessarily used to influencer culture yet, and so of course we are going to perceive it differently when it comes to people reinventing themselves in any way.” 

She also credits stepping back from social media to other positive changes, including being more sustainable in her personal life. “There’s this idea that this militant sustainability is the way forward, which actually creates a huge barrier for entry and gatekeeping for people who want to be a bit more sustainable. So I think for everyone, it should very much just be about making sustainable choices, especially in areas that you can maintain.” 

Being offline, she says, has taken the focus away from living up to these standards, and instead she’s able to focus on her own decision-making: “How can I make the best decision here? If there’s a trade-off, how do I make that work?”

Sustainability is also at the heart of Beverley’s businesses. Most of the products produced by TALA focus on up-cycling fabrics that would otherwise go to waste, their Zinnia leggings, for example, are produced with 92% up-cycled Polyamide, and purport to “save over 40 litres of water and 2kg of CO2 compared to non up-cycled Polyamide.” The brand is admirably transparent, and in a video released last year, Beverley even took her followers into one of the factories that they use. 

She emphasised, however, the complexity of this sustainable approach. “Sustainability isn’t just about, for example, recycled clothing; it’s about everything, from how you dye fabrics, to how you ship things over, there are so many different aspects of it. And I think that it is really, really important for the consumer to be aware of that.” Some fabrics, such as elastane, can only be recycled a certain number of times, so each decision that Beverley and her team make involves weighing up the balance between sustainability and maintaining the quality of the garment. 

On the other hand, an online product such as the Shreddy app doesn’t have any direct sustainability implications. Launched in 2019, Beverley told me that both of her businesses have seen steady growth through the pandemic, which she partially credits to their online-only, direct-to-consumer model. 

This model has seen enormous growth over the last year, with one study suggesting that sales for D2C businesses in the US has seen a 24.3% increase from 2019 to 2020, likely in part due to the closure of physical shops, as well as the ease of online shopping.

This doesn’t mean that the pandemic hasn’t impacted Beverley’s two businesses. The sampling process for new products had to be pushed back for several months, as it requires high levels of international collaboration, which means that many of the TALA collections coming out over the next few months have been delayed from earlier in the year. 

Now, one of Beverley’s biggest priorities is working on crisis management to prepare for the future. “It’s quite interesting going into what might be seen as a second wave to look at how we change, how we act [in comparison to] the first time.” 

“Whether you’re making more money or not, crisis management is always going to take up a huge amount more time. So I feel particularly kind of heartbroken for the companies that are probably working above their heads.”

Still, it seems that Beverley’s companies are continuing to evolve, despite all the challenges they face. In the weeks after our interview, it was announced that she was merging two of her companies, rebranding her fitness equipment company B_ND to fall under the umbrella of Shreddy. In an Instagram post, she told her followers that “rebranding the rest of the business & reframing towards a tech-forward business model made sense.” It doesn’t seem like much is capable of stopping Grace Beverley from continuing to push forwards.

Slight drop in University COVID-19 cases to 126

David Tritsch
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Slight drop in University COVID-19 cases to 126

Oxford University’s testing service has confirmed 126 cases of COVID-19 among students and staff for the week 7th-13th November, with a positivity rate of 30%. This marks a slight drop in the number of new cases compared to last week’s 146, as well as in the test positivity rate compared to last week’s 34%.

Following a three-week period in which case numbers increased almost linearly (with about 200 new cases among students and staff per week), last week marked the first drop in the number of new cases reported. The numbers this week closely mirrored last week, indicating a substantial drop in the number of new cases per week. However, the number of tests conducted per week has fallen by about 50% since the week starting on October 17th and the high positivity rate of tests could be evidence for a significant number of unreported cases.

Current University guidance is that students and staff should not get tested unless they have been asked to or they display symptoms of COVID-19. The University’s white paper states that “one of the challenges the University faces is staff and students with no COVID-19 symptoms asking for tests unnecessarily”. The University of Cambridge, whose collegiate system mirrors that of Oxford, have set up a testing pod in the city for symptomatic cases, but have recently announced they will test all asymptomatic students in colleges.

The University’s Status and Response website also states that the figures released do not include positive test results received outside of the University testing service. It notes further that “due to the time interval between a test being done and the result becoming available, it is expected that there will be a mismatch between actual results and those confirmed to us on any given day”.

Image credit: Oxford University Status and Response website (https://www.ox.ac.uk/coronavirus/status)

This week, the University released a detailed breakdown of the past eight weeks for the first time. Daily numbers of positive tests are given and the data is split into results for students and University staff. The positive cases among students for the vast majority of positive tests, with a total of only 35 staff members having tested positive so far. The total number of positive cases within the University as of November 13th is 980.

The University has implemented a four-stage emergency response, depending on how wide the spread of Covid-19 is. The current status is Stage 2, which allows the University to operate “in line with social distancing restrictions with as full a student cohort as possible on site”, with teaching and assessment taking place “with the optimum combination of in-person teaching and online learning”. A Stage 3 response would imply “no public access to the University or College buildings” and “gatherings for staff and students only permitted where essential for teaching and assessment to take place”.

Damsels in distress? – The rise of the lesbian period drama

Natalie Vriend
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Damsels in distress? – The rise of the lesbian period drama

Kate Winslet catches Saoirse Ronan’s eye in the mirror, watching in the light of an oil lamp as she takes her corset off. Later, Ronan looks down at their held hands, petticoat layers concealing their secret. They kiss in an empty courtyard, cheeks flushing, a stolen moment of romance.

These scenes are from the recently released trailer for Ammonite, one of a wealth of lesbian period dramas that have suddenly occupied our screens. From Portrait of a Lady on Fire to The Favourite, filmmakers have discovered a formula that garners both critical acclaim and mainstream reverence, and are keen to make the most of its success. (The latter, for instance, was nominated for ten Oscars, five Golden Globes, won seven BAFTAs, and grossed $95 million at the box office.)

Set in the 18th-19th century, these period films usually follow the love story of two women, roaming the English countryside, the coast or the grounds of an expansive castle. Amidst the luscious backdrops and swathes of silk used for each costume, the dark days of women pillow-fighting for the straight man’s satisfaction seem miles away. After years of shunning and over-sexualisation in films, lesbians are at long last seeing their names in big, shining lights.

At first glance, this development seems only good news. The sapphic community has begged for on-screen representation for decades – studies show that only 18.2% of films from major studios and 28% of TV shows have LGBTQ representation. Even on the rare occasion they do exist, lesbian films are both in the minority here and typically sold based on their supposed “sex appeal”. The cliché lesbian film piles prejudice on top of prejudice on top of “hot girl-on-girl action!”, exasperating oppressive stereotypes. Exploring the romances between women in the past then, whether fictional or historical accounts, allows for the unearthing of an often forgotten or erased truth: a woman’s love for other women is in no way new or strange. This is a fact many need to feel reinforced. Women who are attracted to women have always existed: there have been generations and generations of women just like us, who have loved and been loved just like us.

The retelling of lesbian history through these films is undoubtedly a victory for the LGBTQ community – but as with any victory, there are some casualties. While plenty of antiquated tales have been re-established, significantly fewer contemporary lesbian love stories have gained traction in popular culture. Lesbians exist, but only, it seems, if they have no access to electricity or are burdened by the weight of a crown on their head. While these period dramas have certainly made a start in the right direction, a group as diverse as the LGBTQ community needs equally diverse representation. More must be done.

Yes, I’ll admit I enjoy watching the yearning gazes, the soft touches of the hand and the gentle undoing of corsets as much as the next person, but I can’t say I relate to it all. We may accept and enjoy crumbs, but they are still crumbs. The distance created by time can sometimes feel like a gaping abyss. The genre’s time period instils a solemn nature to the films, silence taking the place of friendship and laughter. In Portrait of a Lady on Fire, the women constantly maintain a certain reticence, never really relaxing and only switching from the French “vous” to the informal “tu” when speaking to each other in the very final scene. While the formality may come with the genre, it is nevertheless alien to many of us today. Suitors are not hosted in stately mansions by family members, people do not meet at grand ballroom dances in powdered wigs, and lesbians are not merely damsels in distress.

Contemporary representation will always be needed, as entertaining as period dramas may be. It can make the difference between young women knowing their attraction is real and valid, and thinking it’s just a myth created for the male gaze. If a sapphic viewer finds themself thinking: “My attraction to women looks nothing like that and never will,” the film their viewing can hardly be considered real representation. It might be good cinema, but it is not the representation we crave. Would it really be so difficult to make a few cringey romcoms about two women falling in love? Or a high-speed car chase led by lesbians? A blockbuster horror film? The severe lack of variation suggests to me that society, for all its celebration of women in period dramas, is too scared to confront the existence of the modern lesbian.

Just as the characters in these films feel distant to young women searching for relatable representation, they are also distanced from today’s still-rampant homophobia. The women in these period dramas are ‘safe’ to watch: they live and love centuries away from us and are still constrained to dainty and the feminine behaviours. The then-revolutionary actions of these women would hardly be considered norms-shattering now; a little handholding here, a kiss on the cheek there – the films make the audience feel comfortably progressive while posing absolutely no threat to the current status quo. Viewers have no need to confront the discrimination raging on around them yet feel rewarded for pretending to do so by watching. The message is that lesbians can be tolerated and accepted as long as they cannot be interacted with or heard, as long as they do not disturb straight familiarity. There are certainly examples, such as The Handmaiden, which unabashedly and excellently combat many such important issues, but these are exceptions, not the overarching theme of the genre.

This is not to say that there isn’t a wide array of diverse, contemporary lesbian films already out there – there is. But it’s certainly telling that these films struggle to rise beyond the dingy corners of independent cinemas or the murky depths of a never-ending Netflix scroll.

If lesbians are reduced to two-dimensional characters, delicate and curious relics from the past, whose lives don’t intersect with today’s issues, can we really say that these films have benefited the LGBTQ community all that much? That these stories bring to light otherwise forgotten roots and histories is, no doubt, a win, but the battle is not yet over – women should be allowed to kiss on screen without petticoats weighing them down. To Saoirse Ronan and Kate Winslet: I see your romantic paradise in 1840s England and raise you a cheesy romcom with at least one phone and a semi-stable internet connection.

Image via Flickr

SU criticises colleges’ reduction of vacation residence

Imogen Duke
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SU criticises colleges’ reduction of vacation residence

Some colleges are reducing the availability of residence for students over the Michaelmas vacation. Oxford SU is lobbying to ensure international students are guaranteed accommodation for those who wish to remain, and has criticised the impact on care leavers, estranged students, and independent students.

Oxford SU passed a motion in 3rd week resolving to ask the University to guarantee all international student residence in Oxford over the vacation. The SU also resolves to push for vacation residence to be offered at 15% of usual vacation rent.

College policies do not currently fulfil Oxford SU’s requests. St John’s College has said that their vacation residence and grant scheme “will not operate as usual” during this vacation. All students have to leave, except international students whose home borders are closed and students with extended terms for their subjects.  

St John’s told students that this was to ensure staff get a break from a difficult term, and students get a break to spend some time in a “different environment” before next year.

Queen’s College emailed students saying they “strongly urge” and “expect” all UK-domiciled students to return, noting that for students with welfare concerns, the welfare services would be closed for a period over the vacation.  

They also told international students that the requirement to quarantine in their home country and in the UK is “unlikely” to be a “compelling reason” to be granted vacation residence. Queen’s said that, if borders for students’ home countries are closed, students should consider asking friends to stay at their homes. Queen’s reminded students that “there is no automatic right to stay in College”.

Oxford SU Class Act Campaign told Cherwell: “This is an issue not only for international students, but also for care leavers, estranged students, and independent students. Colleges consistently fail to provide these students with security, instead leaving individuals to negotiate with them for the right to have somewhere to stay. This is a difficult situation for everyone, but many students call Oxford their home, and must not be forgotten in this pandemic.”

One anonymous student told Cherwell: “The vacation residence policy email I received from my college was a disappointing read that placed unnecessary anxiety upon estranged students. For some of us, home life is not safe: it does not matter if this has always been the case, or if this is recent. Trinity Term lockdown was hard enough to suffer because students from other colleges were able to return – hopefully we can stay this time.

“I, like many other students, am incredibly grateful for my time at Oxford because of the freedom it gives me. It is also one of the reasons students take advantage of the vacation residence system: escape. To put it plainly, studying in college is better than working at home. We already try so hard to learn to live independently, study efficiently and strike that balance needed to be happy that if we are forced back into our older unhealthy environments no good will come of it.”

Oxford SU will further ask the University to ensure students who are required to quarantine upon return to Oxford get free accommodation, and receive food at the average price of their college’s home food.

Students who were required to quarantine upon arrival at the beginning of Michaelmas faced very varied college policies. Oxford SU’s motion stated that students were “in some cases charged extortionate rates for their accommodation”. 
Cherwell reported at the beginning of the term that Oriel College charged self-isolating international students over £700, including a nearly £30 per day food bill. Some colleges, including Hertford, Magdalen, Queen’s, and Worcester College, made accommodation free.

Image credit: Simononly/ Wikimedia Commons

The American Story, Part One: The Founding

Josh Self
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The American Story, Part One: The Founding

From America’s founding moments, convenient omissions and factual manipulation have acted in tandem to produce the ‘American story’. This story, that of America striving ever-closer to a liberal promised-land while mimicking the virtues of the ‘founding fathers’, is written into the hearts and minds of many Americans. It has been told and retold so consistently that the cunning machinations that constructed it are long-forgotten. Today, America’s ‘exceptionalism’ is assumed rather than investigated; America’s past is approached, in Carl Becker’s immortal phrase, ‘without fear and without research’. That the slogan, ‘Make America Great Again’, can power a presidential candidate to victory underlines this. For conservatives, the American past remains a dependable ally in the face of societal trauma and, as we see in the ‘MAGA’ slogan, a model for building utopian futures. For many, however, a reexamination of America’s ‘greatness’ is long overdue. At the heart of America’s current identity crisis exists the debate over what America’s past means today. So, who is/was America? We begin in 1799.

Throughout American history, image-makers have crafted certain figures to symbolise the nation and shape its character. America’s first President, George Washington, was certainly subject to these practices and it was his death in 1799 that served as a catalyst. Every society seizes upon the death of a revered leader to express its greatest visions, and it was in Washington’s eulogies that America crafted her ‘representative man’. ‘When Washington lived’, exclaimed the Pennsylvania Gazette, ‘we had one common mind—one common head—we were united—we were safe’. ‘He had no child – but you’, another eulogist wrote, ‘HE WAS ALL YOUR OWN’. In this way, George Washington was created, transmitted and understood; as a model for Americans, this ‘Washington’ still reigns supreme. Rather than an ‘exemplification of the American character’, as his Vice-President John Adams described him, American society would construct itself in Washington’s image, an image more mythical than actual.

Like Washington, the revolutionary age as a whole assumed a sacred character; God was said to have exempted the United States from history itself. ‘If such is the youth of the Republic, what will be its old age?’, asked a French statesman, Senator Lewis Cass answered, ‘Sir, it will have no old age’. Likewise, the phrase ‘Novo Ordo Seclorum’, ‘a new order of the ages’, still features on the American dollar bill. Americans of old depicted their destiny in ahistorical terms and many Americans today believe themselves secured against time by divine covenant.

This understanding of a shared destiny provided a cohesive discourse for a young United States, rife with regional interests. This false unity was then reinforced by the political myth of shared origin centered around the ‘founding fathers’. The ‘founding fathers’—like the best myths—were real people, a community of those who signed the Declaration of Independence 1776 and/or were members of the Constitutional Convention 1787. Their significance moves far beyond their role as historical actors, however. The ‘founding fathers’ constitute an American master-narrative which has enshrined 99 statesmen as the architects of everything American. Using the allegory of family, the term ‘fathers’ implies tradition, legitimacy and, crucially, community. Under their undivided fathers, Americans, too, would form an illusory collectivity. Obsessed with the future and what it might bring, America’s founding generation told stories about itself so that future generations might preserve their memory and their nation. In his autobiography, leading founder Benjamin Franklin fashioned himself as a ‘good parent’ who ‘treats all Americans as his offspring’, and paternal language fills Washington’s eulogies. In this way, Americans made themselves one, and these myths of a shared origin and destiny are still very attractive today.

These myths, however, have come at the cost of two dual ideals, truth and justice. As Edmund Morgan relates, ‘George Washington led Americans in battle against British oppression. Thomas Jefferson led them in declaring independence. Virginians drafted not only the Declaration, but the Constitution and its first ten amendments as well. They were all slaveholders’. Jefferson, the man who penned the phrase, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’, also argued that black people were ‘inferior to . . . whites in the endowments both of body and mind’. Indeed, despite the apparent anti-slavery imperative of the Declaration of Independence, the founding documents not only do not abolish slavery, but in fact the Constitution ultimately affirms it. For this reason, one leading abolitionist of the time labelled the Constitution ‘a pact with the devil’. Undoubtedly, the simultaneous development of slavery and ‘freedom’ is the central paradox of American history.

Despite the philosophical inconsistency of the ‘fathers’, it is no accident that 41 of the 56 signatories of the Declaration of Independence held slaves, nor is it surprising that Presidents Washington, Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, James K. Polk, and Zachary Taylor were all slaveholders. The great wealth that slavery produced allowed slaveholders to secure a central role in government and mould it in their image. More pertinently, America’s slave-owning ‘fathers’ understood ‘freedom’ because they denied it to others. The fathers considered society as a composition of free and unfree individuals; indeed, they frequently fashioned themselves as slaves to British tyranny. Slave-holder Thomas Jefferson was qualified to write the Declaration of Independence, in part, because it was he who understood ‘freedom’ and its denial best.

Perhaps it is tempting to defend Jefferson, who one historian describes as the ‘the foremost racist of his era’, as a ‘man of his time’, Jefferson’s philosophical inconsistency was known in his age. Slave descendant David Walker took Thomas Jefferson to task in 1829, ‘Do you understand your own language? … Compare your own language above, extracted from your Declaration of Independence, with your cruelties and murders inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers and yourselves on our fathers and on us’. Likewise, former slave Frederick Douglass in 1841 famously exposed the myth of American independence. ‘What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?… a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim’. Walker and Douglass dared America to live up to its self-proclaimed ideals and exposed the hollowness of America’s ‘exceptionalism’. Despite these powerful expositions of America’s founding myths, however, they were consolidated for generations to come.

All societies operate on the basis of myths, what is aberrant in the United States is that their working myths are intrinsically linked to racism and exclusionary politics. If we understand that slavery was crucial to America’s economic, social and political development, the United States ceases to be the ‘free society’ it is so often imagined to be. No one has put this better than Langston Hughes:

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free”.

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